National Signing Day

I’m not big on the whole recruiting trail and following which kids sign with which school and whatnot, but I do enjoy the numerous visits I make to the schools in this time of year, as the county athletes embark on the next journey in their lives, playing collegiately. I attended my first signing of the year on Wednesday, watching as five Bulldogs (Tyler Basil, Kareem Brown, Taylor Goode, Shawn Smith and Collin Stubblefield) made it official, inking letters of intent to play football at Northeast. There’s no doubt that New Albany football had a talented senior class, so the fact that they had a large group signing was no surprise. Head coach Ron Price had a lot to be proud of as the group gathered for the celebration at the high school. Price is in his fifth year of association with the football program and noted this being the most he has witnessed signing since he’s worked here. “It’s exciting that we’ve had this many sign this year. We had an outstanding senior class this year, and it’s great for these five guys. They had a great year on the field, and even off the field. They’re great in the classroom and the community. I’m excited to see them have the opportunity to go on and play at the college level.” Price, too, played college ball for the Tigers, so I’m sure there was even more pride for him to send his best talent to his former team, but it doesn’t stop with the five that signed. Northeast has extended walk-on offers to four more Bulldogs, Zach Hand, Mario Waldrop, Shane Smith and Kelvin Worship, so the Tigers have a lot of talent from New Albany joining their program, which Price feels will also benefit the younger kids at New Albany. “To have that many kids with the ability and hopefully the opportunity to play in college helps build the name of New Albany and show the younger kids that all the hard work that goes in the weight room and in practice, it will pay off if they continue to do the right things to prepare themselves.” NAHS has a lot to be proud of with this year’s signing class, and by the looks of it, I may make a couple trips to Booneville to watch them next year, so long as they promise to take it easy on my alma mater, ICC.